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NEGRO SUFFRAGE NOT A MATTER OF POLITICAL PRINCIPLE
In discussing the matter of negro suffrage, it is a gross blunder to define it as a political
issue. In the northern states where it is not so vital in its local relations as with us, it is in some
sort an abstract political question , but it has little or no strength when viewed in that aspect.
Very few persons in the north are in favor of enfranchising the negroes as a matter of principle,
and they comprise only the small handful of [faustics?] who believe in the absolute equality of
all races, and the consequent equal rights of all in all things. The only reason why the radical
party desire the negroes to vote is that they may vote the radical ticket. If, the white men of the
south succeed in making the negroes vote as they direct, there will be no party in this country as
clamorous for disfranchising the negroes as these very radicals—And we may frankly add that if
the northern democracy believed that we could make them vote the democratic ticket, they
would no more protest against letting the negroes vote that the radicals do. Negro suffrage
therefore, involves no principle upon which two great parties may take opposite departures in
pursuance of policy, but is in the political contests of the day in some sense what a strategic point
is to hostile armies on the battlefield. By means of secret associations the radicals first got
possession of this element of voting strength, and then they gave it political vitality only that
they might use it against their opponents. They are now upholding it as the means to overcome
opposition in the north, and they hope to make up for the loss of northern votes in the
presidential electoral college next fall by counting those that they obtain through negro suffrage
in the south. That is the philosophy of negro suffrage as it appears to the minds of radical leaders
in the north. The adventurers in the south who uphold it are actuated by motives exactly similar.
There is no party in this country really in favor of negro suffrage as an abstract political
principle.
Southern opposition to allowing the negroes to vote is, however, a matter of vital
principle, the mere surrender of which will subvert the entire fabric of our civilization. For, the
moment we admit the negro’s right to right to vote, we enter the path which leads us down to his
level in the social and domestic arena. We soon become suitors for his support, and white
candidates for office will be required to stand hand in hand suppliants for negro votes. When
that state of things comes, the places of public honor can only be filled by negroes and ignorant,
depraved and unprincipled white fellows, for none other will aspire to election by the masses of a
race [unreadable text] and debased. And if negro suffrage be permanently imposed upon the
south this condition will certainly come upon us, because of the [numerous?] voting strength of
the negroes in all the southern states. Put the ignorant and debased men of any community at the
head of its public affairs and of course that community becomes intolerable to all respectable and
refined residents.
Thus it is, that with the southern white people negro suffrage can never become a
political issue, or in any sense a party question on which white men may divide. It is essentially,
absolutely and directly a question of domestic, industrial and social concern on which all stand
together by those ties of blood which unite all men of the same race to each other. And, it is
because “blood is thicker than water,” that the white population of the south are [unreadable
text] in opposing negro suffrage. It is due to the [unreadable text] fact that the Californians have

NEGRO SUFFRAGE NOT A MATTER OF POLITICAL PRINCIPLE
In discussing the matter of negro suffrage, it is a gross blunder to define it as a political
issue. In the northern states where it is not so vital in its local relations as with us, it is in some
sort an abstract political question , but it has little or no strength when viewed in that aspect.
Very few persons in the north are in favor of enfranchising the negroes as a matter of principle,
and they comprise only the small handful of [faustics?] who believe in the absolute equality of
all races, and the consequent equal rights of all in all things. The only reason why the radical
party desire the negroes to vote is that they may vote the radical ticket. If, the white men of the
south succeed in making the negroes vote as they direct, there will be no party in this country as
clamorous for disfranchising the negroes as these very radicals—And we may frankly add that if
the northern democracy believed that we could make them vote the democratic ticket, they
would no more protest against letting the negroes vote that the radicals do. Negro suffrage
therefore, involves no principle upon which two great parties may take opposite departures in
pursuance of policy, but is in the political contests of the day in some sense what a strategic point
is to hostile armies on the battlefield. By means of secret associations the radicals first got
possession of this element of voting strength, and then they gave it political vitality only that
they might use it against their opponents. They are now upholding it as the means to overcome
opposition in the north, and they hope to make up for the loss of northern votes in the
presidential electoral college next fall by counting those that they obtain through negro suffrage
in the south. That is the philosophy of negro suffrage as it appears to the minds of radical leaders
in the north. The adventurers in the south who uphold it are actuated by motives exactly similar.
There is no party in this country really in favor of negro suffrage as an abstract political
principle.
Southern opposition to allowing the negroes to vote is, however, a matter of vital
principle, the mere surrender of which will subvert the entire fabric of our civilization. For, the
moment we admit the negro’s right to right to vote, we enter the path which leads us down to his
level in the social and domestic arena. We soon become suitors for his support, and white
candidates for office will be required to stand hand in hand suppliants for negro votes. When
that state of things comes, the places of public honor can only be filled by negroes and ignorant,
depraved and unprincipled white fellows, for none other will aspire to election by the masses of a
race [unreadable text] and debased. And if negro suffrage be permanently imposed upon the
south this condition will certainly come upon us, because of the [numerous?] voting strength of
the negroes in all the southern states. Put the ignorant and debased men of any community at the
head of its public affairs and of course that community becomes intolerable to all respectable and
refined residents.
Thus it is, that with the southern white people negro suffrage can never become a
political issue, or in any sense a party question on which white men may divide. It is essentially,
absolutely and directly a question of domestic, industrial and social concern on which all stand
together by those ties of blood which unite all men of the same race to each other. And, it is
because “blood is thicker than water,” that the white population of the south are [unreadable
text] in opposing negro suffrage. It is due to the [unreadable text] fact that the Californians have

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University of Arkansas Libraries

Series Title

Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas